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Many federal agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), hire veterinarians for jobs in public health and research, animal welfare and safety, disease control, epidemiology, and more. Some veterinarians are commissioned officers in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) or various branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. The USDA employs more veterinarians than any other single agency. Most of these jobs focus on the prevention and control of infectious and parasitic diseases and food-safety inspections; tasks include writing and enforcing regulations and advising academia, industry, and professional groups on the effectiveness of food-safety controls. The USPHS employs veterinarians in the development and administration of programs concerned with the control of animal diseases transmissible to humans.

In all of these positions, veterinarians are more likely to work with people and paperwork than pets. For veterinarians who are OK with that, government service is a growth field. There’s a critical need for the services of veterinarians. A 2009 report from the Government Accountability Office says there’s a dangerous shortage of veterinarians to fill essential positions in the federal government, a problem that could seriously affect animal and public health.

State governments employ state veterinarians to enforce laws and regulations to protect animal health, as well as to advise the state on animal diseases that may affect human health. State veterinarians also investigate outbreaks of such diseases. (See chapter 10.) Municipal governments also hire veterinarians for their public health departments. Their duties involve the sanitary control of meat and milk production and investigation of food-poisoning epidemics. State veterinarians are also involved in the protection of the public—humans and animals—in the event of a natural disaster or a terror attack. Jacob Casper, DVM, is past coordinator of disaster services for the Maryland Department of Agriculture and past cochair of the Maryland Animal Disaster Planning Advisory Committee. These positions called for him to resolve any agricultural or animal-related problems that developed during disasters. The preparation exercises he took part in involved nuclear power plants, winter storms, hurricanes, and terrorism.

John M. Olin: Hip (and Elbow) Dogman

“Well-known inventor, industrialist, philanthropist, conservationist, and sportsman” is how the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) describes its founder John M. Olin. Olin’s legacy lives on at such universities as Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, Columbia, and Washington University, whose libraries, programs, or fellowships bear his name. Beyond his business and philanthropy, Olin was a dog man and participated with his Labrador Retrievers in field trials. His most famous Lab was King Buck, the National Championship Stakes winner in 1952 and 1953, whose likeness was immortalized by the U.S. Post Office on a postage stamp. After a number of his dogs were struck with the debilitating disease known as hip dysplasia, Olin set out to rectify the situation and formed the OFA in 1966. Today the OFA maintains databases for purebred dogs for hip dysplasia as well as for at least twenty other diseases. The organization also offers DNA testing for other diseases and databases for cats. Olin’s intentions in creating the OFA are reflected in the organization’s mission statement: “To improve the health and well being of companion animals through a reduction in the incidence of genetic disease.”

In Korea, at a mobile veterinary treatment facility, two veterinarians, Lt. Park Sung-gu and Maj. Michelle Franklin, help load an injured working dog for transport to a recovery area.